Marina Abramovic's "The Artist is Present" in Another Context
From the introduction to The Penguin Dictionary of Saints, Third Edition: "The English word 'saint' is derived from the Latin epithet sanctus, which represents the Greek hagios and the Hebrew qâdosh ... When applied to people and things [these words] meant hallowed, consecrated, set apart ... they did not of themselves necessarily connote that high moral quality which is now inseparable from such words." READ MORE
Signs of the Times: Keep Calm
In the spring of 1939, the UK government's Ministry of Information commissioned a series of wall posters designed to assuage public anxiety. The first poster went into production in August 1939-a month before England declared war on Germany. Its message was stridently chirpy: "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will Bring Us Victory." The second poster featured the rather deflating "Freedom is in Peril"-and like the first, it was plastered in shop windows and rail stations. The third poster had the largest print run of all-historians estimate 2.5 million copies made-but it was held in reserve, to be deployed only in the event Hitler's soldiers got their boots on English soil. Its slogan was "Keep Calm and Carry On." Seventy years later, the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster is back. This week it attained the highest honor a bit of kitsch could aspire to: it was wanly saluted by Rob Walker in The New York Times magazine. READ MORE
